Xikuangshan Mine

Xikuangshan mine (simplified Chinese: 锡矿山; traditional Chinese: 錫礦山; pinyin: Xīkuàngshān) in Lengshuijiang, Hunan, China,[1] contains the world's largest known deposit of antimony.

There are three mineral beds which are between 2.5 and 8 m thick which are folded in an anticline that plunges to the south-west.

Ore is concentrated and refined on site in a refinery with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes of antimony per year.

[5] Using samarium–neodymium dating, it has been estimated that the deposit formed during the late Jurassic – early Cretaceous period (around 145 million years ago).

The environmental effects of this high level of the rare metalloid are poorly understood and are currently under investigation by a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington and the University of Alberta.